New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-05-20
FACTS AGAINST FREE TRADE.
HENRY GEORGES THEORIES TESTED AND
DIsPROVED.

HENRY GEORGES THEORIES TESTED AND
DlsPROVED.
pponRrss FROM POVERTY. Review and criticism OF
hsnry Ere Trade By riKs srEBBiSs Detroit
i2mo, Up. 81 Chicago: Charles b. Kerr q Co.
Mr.. stebbins has rep I'D to Mr.. George In spirit
Of earnest and hearty indignation. He finds MT.
George radically in error In his statement OF the
facts which he attempts to consider and explain
Thus in his first page, Mr.. Stebbins says:
The savage in his hut. with his club and dug-out
his helpessncss against wind and tide his alternate
gorging aud starving, his vacant ta thap the
and british contests. has better nie ,na as NJ Me-
George seems to think. tends downward WIN our
progress in wealth and invention. but ne ~ ny ny
FIGHT The highest an% II OF ts time and
the last is the best, for the worid runs III up"iu
grooves.
He then points out that Mr.. Georges extreme and
inaccurate statements of existing conditions are
calculated to breed discomfort and lawiessnesS'
"While regulating all lawless violence OF crime
as remedies for social wrongs, the writer OF .ii,
gloomy view of the condition of labor helps 10 ieeu
The fire. wherein the Anarchist FORCES the bomo
for the fatal DYNAMITE In disproof, Mr. SteoDins
cite. the increase in savings bank deposits IN Eng
land during thirty-four years ending Win iooo'
in Massachusetts during twenty years endihg WIFI
1880. and in nine States during twenty-ohe years
ending with 1881. He cites from MI. Greeley the
savings of 8, 900 hands in Lawrence WOODEN mills
In answer to Mr. Georges statement, III tue
United States amshouses are increasing anu
wages are decreasing" he shows that the average
wages paid to all men and women In manufactures
according to the of 1860, was S2o9 1or each'
and the average paid to men, women ana youths
IN 1850 was S346 for each. These citations Illus
trate at once the merit of Mr.. Stebblnss WORK. tha'
il arrays facts against the wild assertions upon
which free-trade theories so largely rest and its
chief fault. that it does not appear to have Deen
prepared in familiarity with or after much study Oh
the latest and best records available. Mr.. Steobms
might have done much better for example, than W
ouote the general average of the census OF 1881 re-
garding the advance in wages from looo W 1901
A great body of facts, not available rev years
ogo are now at the disposal of students especially
the report of Mr. Weeks regarding wages III manu-
featuring and mechanical employment, whlcn
would be far more convincing than the ngures
which Mr. Stebbins employs. In iater
part of his work. indeed, Mr.. stebblns
ouotes freely from a work by Mr.. Dodge, pub
,isbed in 1884. clearly establishing the
fact that farm wages are not higher where land is
cheap. as they should be if Mr. Georges theory were
correct. But the convincing tables of Mr. weeks
and Others of similar character published within the
mast few years are incomparably more valuable
than the comparison of average wages pald men,
women and children in all so-called "manu1acV-
uresv for il ia we'll known that there is scarcely
an important branch of industry in which that
comparison is not liable to mislead.
1t is to be said, IN justice to Mr. Stebblns, that
the figures he does give are not those which nave
been nvalldated by later information or events.
He proves much that is true but might nave
proved moro. Thus his figures of savings banks In
1881 are not more convincing than those OF later
b,so itotio from Consul
1880 is not as convincing as the admission OF the
rowing free-trade agent, Schoenhof, in 1856, re-
gar6ing the relative cost of clothing In this and
other countries But 1t would be hard to make
more effective reply than Mr.. Stebbns makes
to Mr. Georges assertion that land and
wage seryitude is worse than chattel slav-
cry, by quoting journals OF slave overseers
brought back from the South during the war, and
advertisements cut from old Southern newspapers.
which show what the condition Of chattel slavery
actually was In the main tie refutation of Mr..
Georges theories is effective, though the worst and
most deceptive Of the sophisms of that brilliant
writer, perhaps. deserved more attention, namely
the constant suppression of the marvellous change
in the habits and wants of the working people,
which nj once bears testimony to the improvement
i'm their condition and explains the fact that there
IL as much unrest and dissatisfaction now as there
was when wages were forty or fifty per cent lower
Regarding the improvement In the condition OF
labor in other lands. SIR. Stebbns quotes savings
bank records and the statistics of cooperative
stores to prove that Professor Rodgers and Pro-
fessor Fawcett are IN error IN holding that the
British laborer has gained nothing. He might
have quoted with much moro effect the elaborate
comparisons by Mr.. GiffeD, president of the Brit
ish Statistical Society Messrs Wells and Atkinson
are called. as strong witnesses against the free
trade theories of Mr.. George, and with good Effects
the truth is that there is no competent econ
omist in the country who dares attempt
to explain IN harmony with free-trade
theories the change that has actually
been made in the condition and wages of labor
since ! 800 and the increase in wealth and annual
production of wealth, unparalleled in any other
country or under any other tariff in this country,
which Mr. SebblDs fOrcibly presents. His little book
is the utterance of earnest and sincere indgna-
ton which commands respect, although In ar
rangement it might have been more lucid. and I'D
citation of facts more cOnversant with the latest
aud best evidence For it is the striking peculiar
fly of American experience under the protective
system that each years records embrace body of
proof In support of that system more convincing
than the record of any previous year comprises. so
that the latest witness is in double sense the best